Unsung Heroes
by mysecretthoughts
Summary: Quidditch League competition round 11 entry


Quidditch League Competition entry

Round 11

Reserve Keeper for the Cannons

The Department of Magical Transportation

We've all read about the people that rushed to save the muggles from the death eaters at the World cup, of the ones that fought the fires or helped those in danger. But what about that group of workers who worked tirelessly to ensure the hundred of thousands of people were able to leave the scene and get home safely. This is their story.

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><p>Timothy O'conner gave one last satisfied look at the revelers scattered over the vast grounds that had hosted the Quidditch World Cup before heading to his tent. As head of the Department of Magical Transportation it had been his people that had worked for months to organize and coordinate the thousand of portkeys and apparition sites needed to transport a hundred thousand witches and wizards to the Wold cup. There had been small hiccups, families missing their portkey and a few instances of splinching from the over excited wizard but for the most part things had gone smoothly.<p>

Their work would resume in the morning of course as everyone made to leave. They all had assigned times of course and places of deportation to keep things as organized as possible. He was sure there would be those that over indulged tonight and miss their time slot in the morning but they were prepared for that with several empty time slots in the afternoon.

Content that there was nothing more he could do he bade goodnight to the few employees that were still up and stretched out on his bunk. He didn't know how long he'd been asleep when he was roughly shaken awake.

"O'Conner wake up, you need to get up." Yelled the twenty four year old who normally worked in the very calm atmosphere of the broom regulation devision.

"What's wrong." The department head demanded taking in the wide eyes and panting breaths. But even as he asked he heard the shouting and pounding of feet past the tent.

Lunging up he pushed past the pale man and darted through the entrance. His own mouth dropped at the scene before him. People were running every which direction, some screaming, some crying. In the distance he could just make out a group of people walking slowly among the confusion.

"Are they shooting spells?" he asked in disbelief.

"They are." Basil, a supervisor in the portkey division, confirmed.

"And those?" O'conner asked pointing to the pale figures in the sky.

"The muggles that own the property." Someone said gravely from his other side.

He was horrified at the implications but couldn't give in to his fear. "Gather all our people." He commanded, his mind already whirling with plans. It took only minutes to gather everyone as most had not gone far.

"Listen up people." He said from the front of the room. "Right now people are running scared or hiding while the aurors take care of the problem. But as soon as those…." he waved his hand in the direction of the entrance, "are gone we're going to have a hundred thousand people that are going to want to leave, immediately."

"So much for all our prepared times." Someone from the crowd muttered.

O'conner gave a commiserating shrug. "They're going to be scared and impatient and disorganized. I know we're scared too but they're going to be coming to us for help and its our job to get them home safely."

He sighed as he rubbed his head. "They aren't going to be in their nice pre organized groups and they're not going to give us a lot of time. We're not going to make separate portkeys for every single person and we're especially not going to make them to unauthorized destinations.

He took a deep breath as the group watched expectantly. "We have four portkey stations set up around the camp where people arrived and this is where they will returning from. Basil, as soon as its safe take Jackson and Anderson to station one. At least five people to a portkey. I don't care if they're friends or enemies. If they don't like it they can make their own way home. Make all the portkeys for Diagon Alley. They can floo where ever they want from there."

"What if there's a large group that wants..say Stoathead Hill." Basil asked.

"O'conner shrugged. "As long as its one of the planned destinations and its more than five people that's fine. Don't waste time arguing with them though. I doubt we're going to have aurors for crowd control."

He scanned the crowd searching for his next targets. "Shaw, take Mann and Walker to station 2. Send everyone to the Ministry."

He named people for station three and four giving them Hogsmeade and St. Mungo's as locations.

He hurried his speech as the sounds outside began to die down. "You four." He pointed to the floo division workers that had been drafted to help with the event. "Head back to the office, grab some buckets of floo powder and head to our four destinations. Try to keep everyone calm and orderly, especially at the hospital."

"Neal." he barked to the wide eyed youth from broom regulation. "We need to gather more objects to be used as portkeys. Check the muggle's rubbish bin then head to the office and get everything you can."

"Sir." Anderson called from the entrance. "The men in cloaks are all gone and people are starting to come out of the forest."

"All right everyone. Lets get these people home." He stood for a moment as they all left wondering what else he could do. He briefly thought of calling the knight bus to help transport before shuddering at the thought of the of the huge contraction arriving in its haphazard way and flattening several wizards.

He spent the next three hours moving between the four stations, offering reassurance, encouraging people into groups before they reached the head of the line and breaking up fights. With every round he would apparate back to the office putting out fires there and recruiting any ministry workers arriving by portkey to help with the numerous reports of splinching that were coming in.

It took most of the following day but they finally managed to transport every single last person from the event site. It was a tired group of people that returned to the Department of Magical Transportation office.

O'conners second in command and supervisor of the apparition office, Ann Summers, rushed up to the group. "We had over five hundred cases of splinching." She held up a large stack of notices. "Everyone was put back together without problem and no one was seriously hurt."

"We'll wave the normal fine." O'conner decided. "It was an unusual situation. Put a notice in their file and if they've had a previous splinching episode have them come in for a remedial session."

She nodded, zooming away only to be replaced by the supervisor of the floo network. "Mad house that was, floo fires burning nonstop. The floo at the Three Broomsticks sustained some structural damage. Had to shut it down but old Abe let us use the Hog's head. The whole system needs to be shut down and revamped but that can wait until after Sept 1st." He looked down at his notes. "There was one small incident of disturbance at St. Mungo's but a mediwitch stopped it with a few choice words that had the crowd lining up calmly and quietly." He finished with a smirk.

O'conner thanked him before turning to where Basil was sorting through the reports on his desk. "About fifty unauthorized portkeys, light considering." He looked up with a question in his eyes.

"Discount all the ones made by ministry employees or any of the foreign dignitaries. Place a light warning note in anyone else's file. I don't want to discourage people trying to save himself from a threat."

Satisfied he moved to the front of the room and looked at his employees with pride. "I just want to thank you all for all the hard work you did in a very difficult situation. No one else will say that to you because no one else will even realize what you did." He smiled. "Not all heroes get recognized but I know that I have an office full of hero's standing before me now."

"You more than anyone else in this ministry deserve to have a day off, to get some rest. Unfortunately our department is probably the only department in the entire ministry that cannot shut down. I hate to ask this of you but I need at least three of you to stay with me and keep this office open for the rest of the night." His heart swelled as everyone in the office raised their hand to volunteer. They really did have the best people in the ministry.


End file.
